Chuggin' along

I feel like I haven't posted a genuine Chloe update in a while. She's finally getting over her 2 week cold. I thought that horrible cough would never go away but it's definitely on its way out.

We've scheduled an EUA (examination under anesthesia) for her eyes in September. The opthamologist will check her retina again to make sure the ROP isn't trying to resurface. He'll also measure her eye and get an updated RX for her contact. It's a surgery and we're never thrilled about those but it's minimally invasive so that's good. Until then we're still patching for four hours a day. Chloe's such an easy-going baby. She yells at me and tries to roll over a bit when I put her contact in (and I don't blame her) but is otherwise extremely cooperative. I'm a lucky mama, for sure!

We're still working on sitting. It feels like she's taking FOREVER to sit but we do see progress every day. For example, one of the exercises I'm supposed to be doing with her is setting her on her knees with her bum on her feet and placing her hands on my thigh to hold herself up. It's sort of an upright kneeling position and is supposed to strengthen the muscles between her shoulder blades. She stayed in that position about 15 seconds longer today than she did yesterday. This is cheer-worthy in our house and I was quite pleased with my little one. She'll get there one day soon. She just tends to do things more slowly than other babies.

The good thing about Chloe is that, although she progresses slowly (and sometimes extremely slowly), she's always showing some progress. And for this we are thankful.

We're not visiting the pulmonologist for another two months but she has her one year checkup on Thursday. I'm not looking forward to the shots but I'm definitely looking forward to her weigh-in. I hope she's gained. I think she has so we'll see. She was having trouble finishing her bottles and I started getting frustrated because she hasn't increased her intake since May. This resulted in my brilliant plan to reduce her from 5 to 4 bottles per day. She also gets pureed baby food twice a day and my (silly) theory was that she was eating too often. That...did NOT...work. She's back to 5 bottles and two baby food meals. I'm adding olive oil to all her baby food to sneak in extra calories and I think it's working. She seems to be chunking up a bit. We'll see....

I took the advise of my great friends and mix her morning Zantac in with oatmeal. She takes that no problem. Then I use the Grape-flavored Zantac in the afternoon. I squirt that one as far back as I can and along the side of her cheek. She's not thrilled but her expression isn't nearly as bad as it was with the plain stuff. Then I quickly follow with bland veggies. She now knows to open wide after her Zantac because the veggies kill the taste pretty quickly.

Chloe's such a sweetheart. We adore her. She's generous with her smiles and they're great smiles, too. Dave and I (well, mainly I) are becoming more easy-going about letting Solana play with Chloe. She's not the most careful child and we have to often remind her not to lean on Chloe and to be gentle when moving her arms and legs around. Chloe is crazy about Solana, though, and smiles any time she comes near. I love it that Solana has a new-found joy in playing with Chloe. It makes her feel good about herself. I'll also let her "babysit" Chloe when I leave her on the floor and walk to the other room to get something. She feels so important.

We're looking forward to Chloe's first birthday tomorrow! I can't believe it's been a year!